As the kingdom of Highland and Jowston City-State are about to sign a peace treaty to end their long-lasting war, a massacre occurred at the camp of Highland's army of young men called the Unicorn Brigade with Tao and Jowy as the only survivors. They discover that the one behind this was the Highland prince, Luca Blight, and now, they were branded traitors of their own country.

Rampaging Luca Blight only brought destruction and death of the innocent ones, leading Tao and Jowy to take upon each halves of the Runes of Beginning, one of the 27 True Runes that created the world, Bright Shield and Black Sword respectively. As a shield that continues to protect, Tao walks upon the journey of protecting the smiles of those who are important to him, even as he faces the inevitable fate he and Jowy have to go through as the bearers of the Runes of Beginning.

Based on the PSOne video game, it is also loosely based on the Water Margin classics, though it's limited only to the gathering of 108 Stars of Destiny in order to restore order.

Suikoden 2 has always been one of my favourite RPG games, I'm DYING to get to see this game to finally have its own manga adaptation just like Suikoden III! As much as I appreciate DestinyProject for picking up this project, I find the manga adaptation to be a MAJOR dissapointment. Hijikata Yuu had done quite a few games-manga adaptation before but I considered them to be 'Doujinishis' rather than the 'official manga adaptation' to the game.

Aki Shimizu who was responsible for the Suikoden III manga adaptation did a good job in putting the storyline, characters and the fight scenes into motion.

But all that Hijikata Yuu did for this manga is using our beloved Suikoden 2..and the scenes in the game as a plot device without any solid characterisations that makes Suikoden 2 so 'memorable'. The plot in this manga feels too rushed and there's few dialogues in the scene!! I dont feel the 'Suikoden vibe' in this manga and heck! Even the Suikoden 2 novelizations did a better job in potraying the game scenes than this! Reading this manga feels like reading one of those 'Pretty' doujinishis with lots of close-up with no action sequence at all.